An anxious day in the skies. The U.S. Banned flights to tel aviv because of that near miss by a rocket causing trouble for travelers and Ryan smith is tracking it at JFK international airport here in New York. Good morning, Ryan. Reporter: Good morning, George. It's been 23 years amid the first gulf war that flights have been diverted to and from tel aviv. But with the battle raging on between Israel and hamas the FAA is taking drastic measures. As missiles rained down near the airport in tel aviv, travel woes turned to fear at home. I'm very afraid. I'm telling you now I'm very afraid. Reporter: And throughout the word. We don't understand what we're supposed to be doing. Everyone is kind of hectic. Reporter: The root of the chaos here at Israel's Ben gurion international airport, thousands of passengers now stranded. Then there was a bomb alarm. The whole airport rushed into the bomb shelters and it was terrifying. Reporter: After the FAA's decision to prevent any American carriers from flying here for at least 24 hours. Delta and united saying they will suspend flights indefinitely. One delta flight reversed course midair when the missile made impact diverting instead to Paris. Quite unfortunate that we were literally an hour before landing in Ben gurion, but I respect the decision. Reporter: Half a dozen international airlines voluntarily suspending flights rerouting them away from the region. Airlines avoiding travel over areas of conflict for the second time in just one week. This radar image showing the empty skies over Ukraine after mh17 was shot down last Thursday. The FAA was caught a little off foot over the weekend and now making up for it and putting very stringent restrictions on the flights. Reporter: One airline undeterred. Israeli airline elderts Al and mayor Bloomberg made a point to take a flight overnight. It's safe and a great place to Israel has a right to defend its people. Reporter: Just hours ago secretary of state John Kerry arrived inel aviv from Cairo with hopes of achieving a cease-fire agreement in mind. In the meantime, in a phone call yesterday opening, Israeli prime minister Benjamin netanyahu implored Kerry to lift the ban on flights and was told that updated FAA guidelines would be released sometime today. Robin. All right. Ryan, thank you very much.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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